Harder, By Any Other Name
by Jadiona
Summary: Sometimes life is hard, sometimes not hard enough.


**Originally Entered In: **BotheredContest

**Beta: **monica03

**Summary: **Sometimes life is hard, sometimes not hard enough.

**Pairing: **Sam/Emily

**Disclaimer: **All things Twilight is the sole property of Stephenie Meyer. No copyright infringement is intended.

**Harder, By Any Other Name**

He hit the nail with his hammer, grumbling to himself, Sam never had really understood why nail guns weren't more effective.

"You know, Sammy, you hit those nails any harder, and you might break something," Emily hollered at him from the other scaffolding.

Her shouted words were chorused by hoots and hollers of some of the other construction workers. She was the only female on their crew, which, in and of itself, made her the grunt for more than a few jibes and jokes, but the fact that Sam and she were dating – were lovers – made it all the worse.

"But he's good at nailing it!"

"Oh come on, pounding is fun!"

"It's a hammer for a reason!"

Other ribs were made, but the three Sam caught were by Paul, Jake, and Quil, respectively.

"How about I pound you, instead!" he shouted, turning to glare down at Jake.

Jake snorted from where he was drilling starter holes into some of the wood for the project. "Sorry dude. I don't swing that way."

Jake's words were loud enough that it carried and a new chorus of ribs were made.

Crows of "That's not what I heard!" "You'll never know until you try it!" and "But I was told Nessie was tight!" were made.

"QUIET!" the foreman, Emmett, shouted. "One more comment about my niece and I'll rip all of you a new asshole."

Everyone immediately quieted down, but there were still whispered murmurs throughout the crew. Sam grinned as he heard Embry's mutter from below him.

"He'll only rip us a new one if his wife doesn't rip him one first."

They'd all met Emmett's wife, and after meeting her, they all knew who really wore the pants in Emmett's family.

Sam tried to focus back on his work at hand, but part of him couldn't help but wonder just what Emily and he would be doing that night.

The crew he worked with all knew that Emily and he were dating. But the truth was, they really weren't dating, they were fucking. At the end of every night, when they headed to his car with her hand in his back pocket, they weren't going out to movies or to fancy dinners. They weren't in a relationship, at least not the kind of a relationship that people thought they were in.

She was his fuck buddy. He was her jackhammer.

He sincerely hoped none of his fellow peers ever got their hands on that nickname... he'd never live it down if they did.

He finished hammering the last nail in so that it was flat with the structure then climbed down from the scaffolding so he could roll it over to the next section.

Emily pushed away from where she was leaning against her scaffolding and walked over to him. She had long black hair that she kept in a tight ponytail while she was working. Of course, one of his favorite things to do was pull that band out, just before he knotted her hair in his hand so he could yank her head back.

His little fuck buddy liked pain.

In fact, one of the things that just did it for her was biting her neck. She liked hickeys, but she absolutely loved it when he broke her skin.

And he loved being able to pound into her without fear of her claiming rape later.

He'd had it happen twice, and though charges were never filed on either case – as the women both eventually admitted that they'd wanted to have sex with him and then never told him no or to stop – it had ruined his reputation. It was why he was still a grunt worker for Cullen Construction. It was why he could be the best employee that Carlisle, Emmett, and Jasper had for years to come, and he'd still never be allowed to be a foreman or any other position of power.

In spite of the fact that he had the education to have both the roles of engineer and electrician.

Emily leaned into him, going up on her tiptoes to whisper in his ear, "I want you to hammer into me tonight the way you were you going at those nails."

He grinned and murmured back, "And I want you screaming louder than you were shouting your catcall earlier."

"Easily done," she replied. "Now, let's push this thing." She nodded her head at the scaffolding.

"You sure that's what you want to push?" Brett asked as he walked by, pistoning his hips in an inappropriate gesture as he did so. He was carrying a pipe in his hands.

"Shut up, Brett," Emily snarled.

Sam forced himself not to smirk.

There were only a few people on the crew that got to her; Brett was one of them, Mikey was another, and her cousin, Seth, was the third.

Sam worked hard to not let any of the crew get to him. At least not visibly.

Though, if he was being honest with himself, any of them making catcalls at his girl got to him. But he could never let that show. Emily and he worked because neither of them was attached to the other.

Sam worked hard to make sure he remained unattached. Anyone who said it was easy to keep from becoming emotionally involved with someone was lying out of their ass. And he could prove it. Because there would be moments when Emily would simply smile at him, or say something positively catty, and his breath would freeze in his chest.

In those moments, he knew it would be all too easy to fall for the woman that stood beside him and helped him move the scaffolding to its new position.

But Emily didn't want love.

They'd only talked about it once, back when they'd first started forming the beast with two backs. But she'd made it clear she was only in it for uncomplicated fucking.

She'd actually been the one that had initiated their relationship. She'd heard he preferred rough sex and that had been what had led to her to reaching out to him, and she'd wanted some simple, no strings attached, sex.

Then again, their relationship had originally started approximately three years ago. He couldn't help but wonder how long it could realistically remain an unattached courtship.

But he wasn't about to bring it up with her. If she wanted to change the parameters of their relationship, then she needed to be the one that brought it up.

After all, much like Emmett's wife wore the pants in their coupling, he knew who the pants wearer was in his own life.

It was yet another thing that he sincerely hoped the crew never found out. He had a reputation of being an asshole. If they ever found out he'd do pretty much anything Emily wanted, he'd never be able to keep his rep.

Emily headed back to her scaffolding unit without another word to him.

Sam climbed up his to go back to the grunt work.

…

Five hours later, and they were done for the day. Emily practically jumped off the scaffolding in her rush to get to her Sam.

And he was hers.

Even though their sex life wasn't formed around love, and even though she'd never really date him – she didn't believe in roses and diamonds – she owned him lock, stock and barrel.

"I've got to talk to Emmett for a few minutes," Sam said, looking her up and down, essentially undressing her with his eyes. Of course, he had every right to look at her like that.

He'd seen her naked often enough.

She smiled widely at him. "Go for it. I need to talk to my little cousin."

It was a misnomer of epic proportion. Seth had over a foot in height on her and weighed almost a hundred pounds more than her. He was even almost six months older than her. But though he was over two-hundred-fifty pounds, he was all lean muscle and never seemed to exude the physical display that he really should.

Besides, he'd always be her little cousin.

Sam and her went in opposite directions, him heading towards the foreman's trailer, and her heading towards where she knew she'd find Seth.

He always needed a cigarette at the end of a shift. His father used to call the habit 'clockwork dependable,' back before he'd passed.

Just as she suspected, he was leaning against the big dumpster, blowing smoke.

She knew, even before she asked, that what she was going to say would grate on Seth's nerves. But she really did want to know how her other cousin – his sister – was doing. "How's Leah doing?"

"His name is Lee, and he's doing just fine." He scowled.

She flinched. She'd never thought herself to be prejudiced, but the truth was that she'd grown up just two houses down from Seth and Leah. And she used to play Barbies with Leah. Leah took her shopping for her prom dress, had held her as she cried as a young teen, and had been one of the only real female friends that she'd ever had.

She just wasn't able to get used to the fact that Leah had transitioned to a man.

"Good." She cleared her throat. "I mean, that's good."

Seth narrowed his eyes at her. "He misses you, you know. You should call him."

She flinched again. "I can't... I just can't."

"He's still the same person you always knew. His body is just a little different is all."

Emily laughed, it wasn't a pleasant laugh. "The person I knew wasn't a guy."

"Why does his sex matter?"

She shrugged slightly. "I don't know." She did know, though. At least partly. When Leah had transitioned five years ago, without her ever realizing that Leah was considering doing such a thing. It made it feel like their whole friendship had been a lie.

And Leah had been the only one she'd been able to talk to about her desire for violence with sex until she'd met Sam.

Emily still wondered if Leah had told her about her plans – if she'd been upfront about the fact that she felt more like a guy than a girl – would she still feel so weird about what her cousin had done?

Would they still be best friends?

"He didn't do this to hurt you, Emiliana. All you have to do is pick up the phone. You two can have your friendship back."

She barely avoided flinching a third time as he used her full name. The only person who ever called her that was her mom. "Is he still your sister?" The words were angry and tasted bitter as she said them.

"No. He's my brother."

"Come on, Em! Let's go!" Sam shouted from across the lot.

She was instantly grateful for the distraction.

"I've got to go," she said, turning her back on Seth.

She was halfway to Sam when Seth shouted after her, "Call him, Emily."

She clenched her fists slightly as she paused, before letting out a breath of air and continuing to Sam. When she reached him, she put her hand in his back pocket.

"Come on. Let's go home."

"Sure thing. Any more requests for tonight?" he murmured.

She'd actually forgotten her request to have him hammer into her, but his question reminded her. "I want you to hold me down while you pound into me." She looked up into his face as she spoke.

He grinned, his eyes sparkling at her words. "I think that can be arranged."

They walked together the rest of the way to his truck.

When they got to his truck, he pushed her up against the side of it, leaning down and kissing her.

They didn't normally kiss while still at work, but she didn't try to pull away. They were off for the night, so Emmett couldn't bitch about their PDA.

His hands took hers, pressing them against the side of the truck so she couldn't dig her nails into his neck or back – as was her habit – as the kiss deepened.

Their kiss was all tongue and teeth, beautiful and brutal all at the same time.

He kissed her thoroughly until her lungs were screaming for air, until she might have actually tapped out or moved away if she'd had the space to – even though she was enjoying him controlling her – but that was part of what she liked about him.

He wasn't afraid of hurting her, and she enjoyed the pain with the passion.

He pulled back when he needed to breathe. "You want more of that when we get home?"

"Yes. But more."

He smiled. "More?"

"You know. Rougher."

"You won't be able to scream if I'm kissing your mouth."

"Then kiss my neck instead."

"In what way?"

"You know how I like it."

"Say it."

She blushed slightly, glancing around the parking lot before going up on her tiptoes and whispering. "Hard."

He chuckled. "I love that you still blush saying that." He stepped away from her to go around to the driver's side of the car.

It was the closest he ever came to saying the highly precocious three-word phrase. She was glad of that because she'd have to leave him if he ever actually said it.

On principle alone if nothing else.

Even if she did love him...

She'd never admit it.

She opened the passenger side to the truck.


End file.
